Nightmares of the Past
by LottiePoynterr
Summary: Could be classed as a sequel to 'Our Memories Disguise Us' but it doesn't include any violence or anything and the ending of that and the beginning of this don't really match up :) Hope you enjoy it :P


**My mums heating broke while I was there and it was -1 degrees... INSIDE! I was freezing and couldn't sleep and so I started thinking up ideas for stories and then this popped into my head. So there's the story behind the story... I hope you like it! :)**

* * *

**Dougie's POV:**

I stood outside Harry's bedroom door, debating with myself whether to go in or not. It was just past 3 in the morning. I'd woken up after having a nightmare, I had nightmares a lot and could usually just get back to sleep on my own with no worries. However, occasionally, I had particularly bad ones. I would wake up gasping for air as if something had been choking me for minutes and with tears streaming down my face. This was my first one of these nightmares in just over 7 months and all of the other boys had thought that I had got over my stage of having nightmares. I never told them about the small ones that happened every night because they weren't really important and so I could understand why they believed that my nightmares had stopped completely. I was still crying whilst I was stood outside Harry's door. I thought that he'd hate me for waking him up so early for such a stupid reason and be angry. In the end, I couldn't bring myself to go in, however I also couldn't bring myself to go back into my own bedroom. You see, sometimes, the nightmares freak me out so much that little _accidents_ happen. Yeah. That's right. I was a 17 year old boy and I had just wet the bed. I felt so ashamed, I hadn't done that in ages, even I thought I was past the stage of the nightmares making that happen. I simply curled up in a ball by the wall next to Harry's door, in my still wet trousers, and fell asleep there.

**Harry's POV:**

****I woke up when a strip of sunlight shone through the edge of the curtains. I sat up slowly and looked at my clock. It was only 9:30 and so I knew that none of the others would probably be up yet. I got a t-shirt on and went to clean my teeth. When I had finished, I decided to go and get breakfast, however when I opened my bedroom door, I got the shock of my life. There was Dougie, curled up against the wall sleeping. I bent over to wake him up, 'Dougs? Dougie!'

'W-what?' he asked sitting up startled. After a second, he realised where he was and he then began to cry.

'Hey, hey it's okay. What's wrong?' I asked, putting my arm around the smaller boy.

'I-I'm sorry' he said, more tears rolling down his cheeks, 'I-I've done something b-bad.'

'Well, I'm sure it'll be fine. What have you done?'

'I had a-another n-nightmare. They n-never a-actually stopped. T-they j-just weren't a-as bad. But l-last night, I had a r-really b-bad one a-and I w-wet t-the b-b-bed.' he told me, before bursting into floods of tears.

'It's okay Dougie. Ssshh, sshh, it's fine, it's okay. It was an accident, it happens. You just should have told us about the nightmares Dougs, we could have helped. It's okay, don't cry. It's okay.' I soothed. I felt so sorry for the younger boy. He'd had such a messed up childhood so far and it really had scarred him. We were all so pleased when we thought that the nightmares had stopped because we thought that we'd finally managed to help Dougie get over what happened with his family. To find out that it was all still affecting him so much was heart-breaking. As he began to calm down, I decided that we should just get him into some clean clothes and go and have breakfast before the other two woke up.

'Come on Pugs. Let's go and get you cleaned up.' I said quietly. He nodded and allowed me to help him up. I walked him into my room, as I had my own bathroom, and sat him on the edge of my bed. 'I'll go and get you some fresh clothes and then I'll run you a bath and you can get cleaned up okay?' To this, he just nodded again and looked down at the floor. I walked through into his room and saw the giant wet patch on his bed, I tugged his sheets off and threw them in a pile in the corner of the room. I went to Dougie's wardrobe and got him a pair of shorts, a Blink-182 shirt, a pair of socks and a fresh pair of boxers. When I walked back into my room, Dougie was still sat in the same place however he now had tears streaming down his face again and he was fighting back letting out huge sobs. 'It's okay Dougie. I'm not angry, It was an accident.'

'I-I know b-but its s-stupid. I'm 17 f-for g-gods sake. W-why c-can't I j-just be n-normal l-like everyone e-else?' he asked me sadly.

'Because you're not like everybody else. You're special. You've been through more in 17 years than most people go through in a lifetime and we respect you for getting through it. You're special because you're unique and funny and everybody who meets you instantly loves you!'

'B-but my d-dad d-didn't love me.' he choked through yet more tears.

'I know but he's in the past now Dougs. We are never going to let him hurt you ever again. We love you and care for you more than anybody else in the world and we'll keep you safe from now on.' He nodded in reply and I pulled him into a tight hug. After a couple of minutes, I went and ran him a bath. He hopped in and 10 minutes later he emerged from the bathroom wearing the outfit I had picked out for him.

'Should we go and get some breakfast now Dougs?' I asked. He nodded in response and took my hand as we walked out of my room. I sat him down in the lounge and took him in 2 pieces of toast with Nutella. As he was eating and watching TV in the living room, I went upstairs and got his sheets to wash. I threw them in the washing machine and put it on spin before going and sitting beside Dougie on the sofa. We sat just watching television for a bit before we heard Tom and Danny greet each other in the hallway and then walk sleepily down the stairs. They stepped into the lounge and looked shocked that we were there.

'Oh hey guys! We weren't expecting you being down here, especially not you Dougs! You usually sleep through most of the day!' Danny said jokily, however I saw Dougie's eyes glaze over and he turned to look at me. I smiled at him as if to say 'it's okay, he's only joking, we'll tell them in a minute' and he nodded as if we had just had some sort of telepathic conversation. 'Erm, guys?'

'Yeah?' Tom and Danny replied to me in unison.

'I think Dougs needs to tell you something. Don't you Dougie?' I said, slowly turning to look at Dougie. He looked panicked as if he couldn't find the words to say. 'It's okay Dougs. They won't be angry. They'll understand.'

'Yeah Dougs. What is it? You know you can tell us anything.' Danny said, sounding concerned.

'W-well. E-erm. Y-you know the n-nightmares I u-used to h-have? Yeah. W-well, they n-never actually w-went away. I j-just d-didn't t-tell you ab-bout them. B-but then l-last n-night I had one of the r-really b-bad ones and I-III...' he burst out crying. I leant over and hugged him tightly. 'It's okay Dougie. Danny and Tom won't be angry or they won't judge you or anything.'

'I-I know. I-its j-just a b-bit embarras-sing. Y-yeah. S-so last n-night I had one o-of the r-really b-bad ones and I w-wet t-the b-bed again a-and I c-couldn't s-stop c-crying and s-so I was g-going to g-go into Ha-Harry's room b-but then I-I thought t-that he'd be a-angry and so I just s-slept on the f-floor o-outside his r-room and then he f-found me and w-woke me u-up t-this morning.' Dougie managed to finish before letting more tears fall.

'Oh Dougs. It's okay. We don't mind, it's not your fault. But just know that you can tell us anything and we'll try and help, yeah?' Danny said soothingly, Dougie nodded and then shuffled closer to me and buried his head in my shoulder. I rubbed circles on his back and kissed his hair softly as he cried into my shirt. Eventually he calmed down and looked up at me and around at the others, 'I'm sorry for not telling you guys. I know I can trust you, I just get embarrassed because it's weird.'

'It's not weird Dougie. It's just something you have a hard time getting over. But we'll help you.'

'I know. You're the best.' We all smiled at Dougie and he smiled back. After Tom and Danny had got breakfast we all just lay on the couch all day watching films. Me, Danny and Tom were sat next to each other while Dougie was lay on top of all three of our knees. He fell asleep on the sofa and we all stayed up through the night making sure that he was okay. The next morning, despite our tiredness, we couldn't help but smile. Dougie hadn't even flinched once throughout the whole night. We truly had helped him.


End file.
